BANGKOK: Thailand's tourism is set to recover strongly from the pandemic as authorities say about 30,000 foreign tourists are entering the country daily.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput said foreign tourist arrivals could reach up to eight million for the year after recording a higher number of arrivals over the past few months.
According to a Bangkok Post report, he said if the momentum continues until the end of this year, foreign tourist arrivals for the year could exceed its earlier forecast of six million tourists.
The central bank's economic data for May showed that there were 1.31 million foreign tourist arrivals during the first five months of this year.
However, the numbers for May alone surged to 521,410, from 293,350 in April and 210,836 in March as the government eased entry rules.
Sethaput said Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.4 per cent for every million foreign tourists arriving in the country.
He said the tourism sector was a key factor supporting the country's economic rebound and the central bank will continue to maintain the momentum through monetary policy normalisation.
He said the central bank will not embark on hawkish policy rate moves, unlike the United States Federal Reserve, as the central banks were operating in different contexts.
Sethaput said BoT wanted to see a smooth take-off of the Thai economy, while the US Fed was trying to ensure the US economy had a soft landing.
He said the central bank would mainly concentrate on targeted actions rather than blanket financial assistance measures for the people.
Sethaput also pointed out that though the economy of Thailand's southern region was recovering, it was lagging behind the country's overall growth rate.
He said this was because the southern region, which borders Malaysia, relied heavily on the service and tourism sector.
The central bank said the southern region's labour market has been badly impacted by the pandemic, with 20 per cent of the workers involved in the service and tourism sector, while 11 per cent were in manufacturing.
The central bank said 14 per cent of the 320 billion baht soft loan and recovery loan programme by the government were given to business owners in the South.
Meanwhile, the Post also reports that Thailand's domestic passenger traffic was expected to pick up this month as airlines begin to increase flight frequencies.
The Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (Aerothai) and the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said the growing demand was in response to the loosening of travel restrictions in the country, consistent with global trends.
According to Aerothai president Nopasit Chakpitak, an average of 1,437 domestic flights took off from the nation's airports every day after the lifting of most Covid-19 restrictions on July 1.
Domestic passenger numbers are expected to surge this month as there are two long weekends - the Asanha Bucha and Buddhist Lent holiday from July 13 to 17 and the long weekend for the King's birthday from July 28 to 31.
He said the average number of domestic flights taking off each day during this period was expected to increase to between 1,450 and 1,480.
With more airlines resuming their flight routes and increasing flight frequencies, up to 430,000 flights are expected to take off this year, up 41 per cent from last year's figure.
The data said the increased passenger numbers for May showed a faster recovery in global air travel and this was spurred by the start of the Northern Hemisphere summer travel season.
It said the total traffic in May this year was up by more than 83 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Iata also noted that global air traffic is close to 69 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
"The travel recovery continues to gather momentum. People need to travel .. and when governments remove Covid-19 restrictions, they do," noted Willie Walsh, Iata's director-general.
Iata said the higher travel demand in the region was mainly driven by the easing of restrictions in most markets, except China.
He said governments needed to improve their understanding of how aviation operates and work more closely with airports and airlines in the future.